Maybe They Are Right
by thelittleturtleduck
Summary: They weren't what the world wanted, but their brother was. Kya and Bumi question their worth as Tenzin continues to master airbending. Can Aang convince his children that all people are truly equal?


A/N: Please review!

Disclaimer: I don't own "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "The Legend Of Korra"

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She whipped the water across the sidewalk as fast as she could, quickly clenching her fingers causing the clear liquid to turn instantly to ice. The surface glimmered under the light of the moon, sparkling as it was touched by the gentle glow.

"That was better, but I still think you're being a bit aggressive with it," an older woman said to the young fifteen year old, still glancing expectantly from the ice to her teacher, "Try to execute it more fluidly than sharply."

Her teacher proceeded to demonstrate what she wanted from her pupil, pulling some water from the burnt orange colored basin resting in between them, and sliding it gently onto the concrete, barely even tightening her fingers to have it freeze on command instantly.

The young student looked back at her teacher, an eyebrow raised a bit skeptically, "That looks almost exactly how I did it."

The master shook her head disapprovingly, sticking her tanned hands into either sleeves of her native water tribe robes,"No, you are not the one watching yourself, and I would appreciate it if you regarded me with a little more respect, young lady."

The pupil stiffened a bit embarrassed, and also a bit infuriated at the way her teacher had just addressed her, calling her out on her behavior.

The young girl turned away from the older women, catching her reflection in the mirror-like ice that lay still frozen to the concrete. Her dark brown hair was separated into two fish-bone like braids, a bit messy due to the multiple layers of her thick hair. Blueish-grey eyes looked back at herself with angry tears threatening to spill over at any second, and a light blush dusted her tan cheeks from embarrassment.

She looked absolutely flustered.

Suddenly, an almost exact replica of her appeared beside her, except she was older and had her hair pulled aside with loops, and a single braid slid down her back instead of two. Clear blue eyes looked up from the reflected image and held both apology yet also a bit of frustration as well.

"I can see we will probably get no where tonight with you so frustrated, we will just practice again tomorrow morning," The student nodded at her teacher s suggestion and turned her head away, facing the air panels that were currently spinning wildly from a strong air current.

"Yes, Sifu," She answered quietly to the older woman, turning so that she could give the elder a respective bow.

The two stared at each other for a second, a strained silence hanging in the air as they searched for something to say. Finally, the older of the two spoke.

"Kya, I know this aspect of waterbending is beginning to frustrate you, but it's hard to be patient with someone who has no patience with me as well. Besides your father, you are the only other person I have ever taught this to and I've never truly considered myself a true teacher," The woman, Katara, spoke now switching from her authoritive tone to her more motherly tone, gathering her robes within her fingers and stepping closer to her young daughter.

"It just seems like I can't do anything right when it comes to this, I'm good at waterbending and I know I am, it s just that you re telling me that my form is off and things like that, when I am executing everything perfectly," The teenager's eyes, still filled with tears, finally began to overflow from the emotion she was keeping inside, the absolute frustration. "I just don't understand what you are asking of me."

"Then ask!" Katara exclaimed sharply, throwing her hands up in frustration,"Instead of talking back, ask me for once what you are doing wrong!"

Kya stood still, completely used to her mother's quick temper, for she had inherited that from her too. She began to wipe away the angry tears that slid down her cheeks and swiftly turned away from the older woman.

"I'm going to watch Tenzin practice," The young girl mumbled as she stomped angrily to the air panels she had been watching spin earlier. They looked ominous in the light of the moon, but when she looked closer, she saw a little bald headed boy dodging the quick moving walls, his orange air nomad robes bristling stiffly in the wind, as he held his hands in front of him, manipulating the air any way he wanted to.

Kya looked back at her home behind her, the air temple in which her father had built many years ago, before she was even born, stood tall. The lights of Republic City shimmered against the dark night, and her father's statue sat in the middle of the bay with an intimidating expression upon his young face. It all calmed her a bit. She was home, she was fortunate, she was gifted, she always had to remind herself to be grateful for what she had been given.

That didn't stop her from rolling her eyes, as her 10 year old brother completed his airbending task near perfectly and their father praised him for how well he had done.

Their father was a tall, muscular man, dressed in the traditional orange robes of an air nomad, he had wise yet friendly grey eyes and a dark beard that sat on his defined chin, the two airbenders even had the same bald heads except her father s had master airbending blue tattoos on it, and on his arms and legs too. Tenzin wasn t quite there yet, but she was sure he would be there soon enough.

Quicker than she would master waterbending no doubt.

Kya huffed and sat on the concrete ground beneath her as Tenzin prepared to go through the panels yet again, an intense look of concentration on his face.

"Maybe if I was more like that, I could actually make mother happy with my bending for once," The girl had mumbled the sentence but that didn't keep Bumi from hearing nearly every word of it.

"Aw, sis! Come on, don't get down!" Kya jumped a bit and turned to see her other younger brother standing behind her. Bumi was only 13 years old, yet had already passed up her petite frame in height, and he had more hair than she could ever dream of having, it hung from differently angles on his head, resembling the hair of his namesake. He wore water tribe clothing similar to her's and her mother's, due to the tanned color of his skin and the clear blueish grey of his eyes, also for his warrior heart.

"You're telling me you never wish you were like Tenzin?" She whispered the question, aware that her father was now probably watching them curiously exchange conversation while Tenzin swiftly navigated through the fast moving panels.

Bumi sat down next to her, his makeshift stick sword in his hand while he shrugged, "I don't know, I don't particularly like the idea of resembling a cueball."

Kya smiled a bit and rolled her eyes at her brother's response, "I just sometimes think that maybe if I was an airbender, I wouldn t have as many mistakes in my bending. Airbending looks pretty basic from afar," The girl watched as her brother yet again successfully made it out of the panels, not even a look of pride on his face, just that serious expression he always wore.

"Well, atleast you have a bending ability! I m left with just my good looks," Bumi smiled a crooked smile and smoothed back his hair,"That and my sense of humor."

Kya shook her head and looked away from her little brother, annoyed by that exact sense of humor in which he was talking about, "I'm being serious. Mother's always unhappy with my bending, always."

"Well, what makes you think pops wouldn't be?"

"Because, father actually has patience, he has compassion, he see's that Tenzin is the only other airbender in the world," The older girl looked back at her brother now, her pale eyes shining with bitterness, "When we were born, everyone wanted us to be airbenders and when we weren't, we didn't only disappoint our parents, we disappointed the world."

Kya stood up now, standing in front of Bumi who was sitting there with an uncharacteristic frown on his tanned face, "I overheard a councilman talking to father once when I was a little girl, the man was angry at him because of you and me, saying that since we hadn't ended up being what the world needed that he had failed in his duty as the Avatar!" She hadn't meant to have this conversation so loudly, but the image of that day burned into her mind had left her with pent up emotions that she needed to get rid of. "I thought after that, that maybe they were right, all the people who talked about us and our lack of what they felt the world needed the most. Then Tenzin was born, and suddenly we didn t matter anymore."

By this time, Aang had heard his children's discussion topic and was cringing at the mere thought of the story Kya was retelling. He had never realized she heard that.

"Tenzin, why don't you go inside and get cleaned up for dinner?" The young boy nodded, before respectively bowing to his father and headed straight to the house.

The Avatar walked over to his other children, Kya still ranting about bending, and Bumi just sitting there trying to keep up with the girl's arguments.

"...I just sometimes feel like maybe the reason I can t master waterbending is because I know no one cares whether I do or not. There are plenty waterbenders in the world, why would one more matter?"

"Because all people are equal."

Kya jumped a bit at the sound of the deep, authoritive voice of her father, not even realizing he had been standing there all this time.

"Father, I was ..." Aang watched as the anger nearly vanished from her eyes, and turned to guilt,"I didn t realize you were standing there."

Aang's face contorted a bit in pain from the look in the girl s eyes, she looked so much like her mother in this moment, the woman who let her quick-temper take control of her every so often but then soon felt remorse after lashing out.

"Uh, I didn't say anything to fuel this pops, and if anyone is going to be punished it will not be me," Bumi stood up holding his hands, with his makeshift sword, in front of him defensively while his older sister glared at him, "Bumi, out!"

Just like that, the two benders were left alone standing in the light of the moon, the wind gently rustling the leaves of the trees, and filling the silence between them.

"Kya, you cannot tell me you actually believe that what that man told me, was correct. Aang got down on his knees and placed his hands firmly on the dejected girl's slim shoulders."

She thought for a moment, looking ashamed as she nodded her head, braids bobbing along with it.

Aang let out a long sigh as he looked off into the distant city, shaking his head slightly at such a belief being instilled within his child.

"You do realize that your mother and I love you, no matter what type of bending you have or even if you have bending at all."

Kya nodded quickly, eyes still dancing away from her father's serious gaze, "Of course I know that, that isn't what I feel doubt towards, father," She said this quietly trying to keep herself from letting her emotions get the best of her, trying to keep herself from letting the pained tears escape their prison within her eyes.

"Then what do you feel doubt towards, Kya?"

She shook off her father s hands on her shoulders and turned from him, "You heard the conversation I was having with Bumi. It's not about love, it's about worth, what am I worth to the world? Why is it important I even learn waterbending when there are others who have my same ability?" Kya asked the questions in a sharp tone, challenging her father to give straight forward answers.

"Kya, I already told you that all life is equal! When I was young, I certainly was not the last airbender, what if I had questioned my worth, where would I be?"

"But you're the Avatar! That's completely different!" The young girl turned so that she was facing her father directly, trying desperately now to get her point across,"There is only one Avatar in the world, you do have worth."

Aang sat for a second, looking at his daughter before glancing down at the ground, "That has no truth to it. If I were to die, another Avatar would take my place."

Kya s heightened breathing calmed a bit at that, thinking about what he had just said. "But still, people see Bumi and I as less because Tenzin is what they were all hoping we would be."

Aang looked up at his daughter, grasping her shoulders tightly again, and speaking as gently as he could, "Who cares what the world thinks, Kya? Your mother and I see you all as worthy as the other. The world is not who determines your destiny, you are," the fire within her clear eyes slowly began to die, so he continued, "Your mother gets frustrated with you because she knows you have great potential, not because you aren't an airbender."

Kya's face began to soften at her father's words, the tears finally escaping their prisons, and breaking free to run slowly down her tanned cheeks.

Aang removed his hands from her shoulders and grasped her tiny hands within his own, "You have no idea how proud your mother and I are of you and your siblings, we could not be happier with who each of you are growing up to be," he flashed her a quick, crooked smile ," I worry sometimes about Bumi though, that kid is weird!"

Kya bursted out laughing, releasing her father's hands to wipe the remaining tears from her cheeks, nodding her head in agreement, "I think he s been hanging out with Uncle Sokka a little too much."

Both laughed a little longer before Aang gently pulled his daughter into a tight embrace, "I love you, Kya. I was watching your waterbending practice earlier, and I thought you did wonderful."

She smiled a bit, and hugged his neck a little tighter, "I love you too, daddy. Thank you, for everything."

They pulled back and shared a goofy smile before turning their attention to Katara, who had been standing there for quite some time.

"If you'll excuse me father, I do believe I owe my Sifu an apology."

Aang smiled and nodded, "How diplomatic of you. Although I don't think it will change much, she already made sea prunes for dinner thanks to your behavior earlier."

Kya scrunched up her face and looked sadly at her mother, but the woman was not wearing the stern expression from earlier, in fact her face was much softer and loving. She had heard their conversation.

"Apology accepted, Kya. But I expect you to eat all your sea prunes and to wake with the sun in the morning in order to practice your form."

The girl groaned and walked away from her parents, but turned to smile back at them. "Joke's on you two, I m sure Bumi has already found a way to get rid of dinner in the time you have been out here."

The parents looked at each other worried, when they heard a loud bang from the kitchen.

"Waaaaahooooo! No sea prunes!" Katara groaned at the mistake she had made, leaving her two sons alone after revealing dinner.

"Bumi! I m sure mother worked very ..OW! Stop hitting me with your stick!"

Aang looked at his wife and daughter, "Like I said, weird kid."

All laughed and walked inside, fully prepared for the mess that was sure to welcome them. Kya turned to look back at the bay and smiled, not worried about the world's opinion anymore.

Maybe they were wrong.


End file.
